Prepared Remarks of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales
to Members of the Brazilian Business Community on
International Intellectual Property Rights

Rio de Janeiro, BrazilFebruary 9, 2007

Good afternoon.

I am glad to be here with you in Rio de Janeiro and to have had the opportunity
yesterday and today to speak with my Brazilian colleagues about the many issues
that connect our two countries. This is my first trip to this unique city, and
in my short time here I have begun to understand how it earned its reputation
for spectacular beauty.

Over the past two days I have had fruitful and candid discussions with
government officials and civic leaders, and I am pleased that we share a common
understanding of so many issues of importance to the people of Brazil and the
United States.

One of those issues, the one I'm here to talk about today, is the protection of
intellectual property rights.

As everyone here today knows, IP protection is undeniably an international
concern. It requires cooperation and a partnership that bridges cultural and
geographic distances to achieve common goals for our citizens and our
economies. And I am here to say that this partnership must include a mutual
commitment to enforce the intellectual property rights that form the foundation
of our dynamic global economy.

I want to talk a little today about the nature of the issue as I see it; what
we've seen working, in both Brazil and the United States; and what I think we
can do next, together.
We are at a critical time in the history of international IP rights
enforcement. Global changes, both economic and technological, have created
unprecedented challenges to this task. It is therefore paramount that we
continue to work together to protect intellectual property. IP helps drive our
economies, and it has too great an effect on the health and safety of our
citizens to be ignored.

People around the world enjoy the fruits of the hard work of our creative
communities -- be it in movies, music, business software, computer games,
clothing, automobile parts, or even medicines. Modern technology gives IP
owners unprecedented opportunities to distribute their works to a worldwide
audience.

But as demand for these products increases, criminals will attempt to profit
from the hard work and creativity of others. And the same technology that
allows for legitimate widespread distribution to consumers has also made it
relatively easy and inexpensive to peddle pirated and counterfeit products
around the world.
Resourceful criminals can use the Internet to violate both trademark and
copyright laws by creating and selling products, such as software, that appear
to be legitimate, but are not.

And criminal organizations benefiting from IP theft have become more
sophisticated and more organized. They hide in the economic shadows to exploit
any weakness in our enforcement efforts, and then use the proceeds of their
theft to finance other criminal enterprises.

While crimes like IP theft may appear harmless to some, the reality can be
terrible. Criminals who manufacture and sell counterfeit products can pose a
substantial risk to the health and safety of our citizens. Imagine a heart
patient undergoing emergency surgery at a hospital that unknowingly purchased
substandard counterfeit surgical equipment. Or a truck driver who buys
counterfeit brake pads that jeopardize his ability to avoid an accident. Or
worse yet, an aircraft mechanic who unknowingly buys fake parts to repair a jet
engine.

Our concern is more than hypothetical. In one case last September, the
Department of Justice announced the indictment of eleven individuals and an
Atlanta-based company on charges related to a scheme to sell fake drugs over
the internet.
According to the indictment, the defendants in that case marketed
approximately 24 different drugs through spam email advertisements. While
customers expected to get safe and authentic generic versions of these vital
drugs, they instead got adulterated fakes that had been crudely made in an
unsanitary house in Belize.

We have seen the real and tangible consequences of IP theft as it steals
business from honest merchants, defrauds innocent customers, and undermines our
values of competition and creativity. This underground economy costs legitimate
businesses billions of dollars every year - and causes significant harm to the
economies of both the United States and Brazil.

What can our respective law enforcement authorities do about this problem? In
my view, our work must proceed on several fronts. We must strengthen our
global enforcement efforts, ensure strong intellectual property laws, increase
resources devoted to IP law enforcement, and work to increase the number of
joint U.S.-Brazil operations.

I know that everyone here understands the importance of these efforts and I
would like to commend the Brazilian government, and especially the CNCP, for
their hard work and dedication in combating intellectual property crime.
Improving enforcement, raising awareness, and changing public perception and
behaviors all take time and perseverance. There is much work to be done, but I
am heartened by the progress that has been made so far.

Seizures of infringing copyrighted materials at the borders have been high,
public seminars on anti-piracy awareness are numerous, training continues, and
there is growing cooperation between Brazilian law enforcement authorities at
the federal and state levels. I am especially glad to see a substantial amount
of cooperation between the copyright private sectors and the CNCP. All of these
are signs of a government that takes IP law enforcement seriously.

And we are not without examples of joint enforcement work between the United
States and Brazil. Recent cooperative efforts highlight how, working together,
we can dismantle criminal organizations engaged in intellectual property crime
on both American continents.

During one operation, the FBI discovered that a Brazilian citizen was illegally
copying and posting to the internet the software of a small U.S. company.
Utilizing Brazilian law enforcement contacts developed during bilateral IP
consultations, the Department of Justice and FBI were able to supply detailed
information that resulted in a raid, search, and arrest of the Brazilian
citizen.

This type of joint law enforcement operation helps send a clear message that
neither Brazil nor the United States will tolerate intellectual property crime
anywhere in the world.

In the United States, we have been working hard on this issue as well. We have
long recognized the importance of preserving IP rights and we have made their
protection a law enforcement priority. We are waging an aggressive and
successful campaign against intellectual property crime on multiple fronts.

As technology has increased the stakes, we have responded, establishing a Task
Force on Intellectual Property in 2004. This Task Force includes high-level
officials and is charged with reviewing how the Department enforces and
protects IP rights. As a result of the Task Force's work, we have increased
our capacity to address IP theft and preserve the rights of intellectual
property owners in a number of ways.

We have increased the number of prosecutors across the country specially
trained to handle IP crimes. Last year this resulted in a 98 percent increase
in the number of defendants prosecuted for intellectual property offenses. And
we've worked with our Congress to close loopholes in our IP laws and strengthen
penalties for offenders.

In one important case last August, we disrupted a Florida operation running a
software piracy website. Illegal sales through the site resulted in losses to
the copyright owners totaling nearly $20 million. After pleading guilty in
federal court, the leader of the scheme was sentenced to six years in prison
and was ordered to pay restitution of more than $4 million. In addition, the
operation forfeited a staggering variety of assets purchased with the profits
of its crime, including three airplanes, a helicopter, a Lamborghini and other
sports cars, a boat, and an ambulance.

The stiff sentence in this case shows modern-day pirates that we take these
crimes seriously. We have organized victims conferences to educate the public
on ways to seek help from the government; and we're targeting Americaís youth
to make sure they understand that IP theft is harmful and illegal.

But strong domestic enforcement and education is not enough to effectively
combat this growing global threat. It is imperative that countries work
together to ensure strong enforcement worldwide. There can be no safe havens
for intellectual property criminals.

To that end, our Criminal Division has worked with prosecutors throughout the
United States and internationally to protect the rights of IP owners and to
enforce the law. In fact, last year alone Department of Justice prosecutors
provided training and technical assistance on IP investigations and
prosecutions to over 3,300 foreign prosecutors, investigators, and judges in
107 countries. And we're training more every day.

In addition, over the past two years, the Department of Justice has
successfully led the two largest international enforcement actions ever
undertaken against online software piracy. Operation FastLink and Operation
Site Down together involved more than 16 countries across five continents,
including Brazil.

These U.S.-led operations synchronized the execution of more than 200 search
warrants, the confiscation of hundreds of computers and illegal online
distribution hubs, and the removal of more than $100 million worth of software,
games, movies, and music from illicit distribution channels. More than 80
defendants in the U.S. have been convicted of criminal copyright infringement
crimes as a result of these two operations, and our efforts are continuing.
The list of countries participating in these efforts is long, and we are
committed to building on these successes and achieving even greater global
cooperation in the future. In the increasingly connected global economy,
nothing short of this type of coordinated international enforcement effort will
suffice.

Developing transnational cases requires a network of law enforcement contacts
on the ground. And we have seen a tremendous benefit from placing a highly
trained IP prosecutor in a partner country to work with and assist foreign law
enforcement counterparts in the complex and unique aspects related to
protecting intellectual property.

In building international teams to fight this battle, we have deployed an
experienced federal prosecutor to Southeast Asia to serve as an Intellectual
Property Law Enforcement Coordinator, or IPLEC, and we will be sending another
prosecutor to Eastern Europe in the coming months.

We are now also exploring ways to put another coordinator in this region in the
near future to focus on IP enforcement activities throughout South America. We
think that having this kind of experienced prosecutor in the region would be a
great asset...as a resource for both of our governments and as a vital liaison
as we continue our successful cooperative enforcement efforts.

And yesterday I pledged to work with my counterparts here in Brazil to continue
their leadership efforts in focusing on the tri-border region.
In the United States, our message to criminals who seek to profit from the
intellectual property of honest and hard-working citizens and businesses is
clear: The U.S. is devoting more of its law enforcement resources -- including
Justice Department prosecutors and investigators -- than ever before to the
enforcement of IP rights.

During this trip, Iíve encouraged my law enforcement colleagues in Brazil to do
the same.

Individually, both the United States and Brazil must have strong domestic
enforcement regimes, and I support and applaud Brazilís efforts to increase its
capacity in this area. But we cannot, and must not, work alone. Our law
enforcement agencies must work together to develop and prosecute international
piracy cases.

The digital age has created a borderless world for large criminal conspiracies
-- so our law enforcement efforts must be global and borderless as well. Every
member of the global economy has a responsibility to keep counterfeit goods out
of the marketplace.

By building on our successful cooperative efforts, we can turn the tide in our
battle against intellectual property crime and the criminal organizations that
profit from it. And we can help to ensure a just and prosperous future for
both Brazil and the United States.